The Snapper Essay, Research Paper

Roddy Doyle.

Title:

The Snapper (Snapper stands for a baby, child, kid, which is the main matter of the book. The

story evolves around the pregnancy of the main character. But to snap means you change

moods very easily, beeause of the hormonal changes during a pregnancy.

Information

about the book:

This book was first printed in 1990.

My copy: Blackbird, 183 pages.

Publisher: Wolters Noordhoff.

Biography:

Roddy Doyle was born in 1958 in Dublin and has grown up there, in Kilbarrack, to be precise.

Kilbarrack is a suburb in the north of Dublin, close to the sea.

He was a Geography and English teacher there and thus stayed in touch with all generations of

his neighbourhood. He loves that part of town and knows that inside the aggressive, foul

mouthed, drunken “eejits” there is (more often than not) a heart of gold. At one point Doyle

felt that the only way to express his true love and sympathy for the suffering people around

them was to write about them. His first book The Commitments was made into a very succesful

movie by Alan Parker and it helped to establish Roddy Doyle’s reputation as a writer of best-

sellers

Bibliography:

The Commitments (1987).

The Snapper (1990)

The Van (1991).

Paddy Clake Ha Ha Ha (1993).

The Woman Who Walked into Doors (1996).

Genre:

lt’s a novel about a working-class family which has to deal with the

pregnancy of the daughter.

Motto:

This book is delicated to Belinda

Characters:

Main Characters.

-Sharon, a girl being pregnant and giving birth to a child of a married man from the

neighbourhood.

-George Burgess, the father of Sharon’s child.

-Veronica, the mother of Sharon.

-Jimmy sr, Sharon?s father.

Minor Characters

-Jimmy jr, Sharon?s brother who has decided to be a famous discjockey.

-Tracy, Linda (= twins), Darren and Les, the rest of Sharon’s brothers and sisters.

-Yvonne, Jackie and Mary, these are the best friends of Sharon, with whom she spends quite a

lot of their time (and money) in a pub, getting ?pissed? (=drunk)

-Paddy, Bertie and Bimbo, the pals of Jimmy sr.

Ordering of time:

The story is built up very simple, it is told chronologically.

Setting:

The setting, like most of Doyle?s work, is a suburb exactly like the one he lives in himself. He

calls it Barrytown, and it is a working class-suburb with tiny houses, lots of children in the

streets, unemployment and heavy drinking (barry means happy in Irish).

Narration:

The story is told by the omniscient point of view, so the reader gets an insight in what the

characters are thinking and feeling, or when Sharon is feeling pain or sickness during her

pregnancy, or when Jimmy sr. was mad at Sharon because she was pregnant and wouldn?t tell

him who the father was.

Language:

The English being used by the characters is mostly Irish dialect, which means that they

pronounce ?jezus? like ?jayses?, and they use lots of insulting words. You could say they speak slang.

Theme:

In Barrytown excists a great sense of togetherness both within the family and in the local

community, but sometimes things happens which can cause a divide. Sharon getting pregnant of

a married man and not telling who he was, is an example of such an event. The book could also

be entitled as: ?Nine months in the life of a family in a Dublin suburb?.

Plot/outline:

The Rabibitte family lives in Barrytown, a north-Dublin suburb. One day, after dinner, Sharon

Rabbitte tells her parents that she is pregnant. The father and Sharon are having a big row,

because she refuses to tell who the father of the child is. Sharon goes to buy a book which

describes the details of pregnancy. When she is in her 1 l th week signs start to show. The time

has come to tell her friends, but she keeps postponing it, because she knew they would ask who

the father is. Her friends are sympathetic and delighted for her. One night Bimbo, a pal of

Jimmy sr, told him that he heard that George Burgess said that Sharon was a great little ride.

Jimmy sr. was furious and wanted to crease him. When Jimmy sr. got home he warns Sharon

for George. The next day Sharon goes to George and told him to stop or else she would tell his

wife (they were both drunk and made a mistake). A few days later George has dissappeared,

because he has told his wife about Sharon. George his wife tells the community that Sharon has

seduced her husband. Sharon decides to deny everything and makes up a story about a Spanish

sailor for her friends. Jimmy sr. is mad and Sharon says she’s sorry and threatens to leave the

house. Jimmy sr. begins to know more about the theoretical side of pregnancy than Sharon

does, because he reads ?bukes?(books) about the subject. In the end of the book, Sharon gives

birht to a baby girl. She calls her Georgina.

My review:

I read this book because I had seen a movie, called ?Bimbo?s burgers?. I liked it very much, and when I saw another movie was going to be broadcasted, performing the same actor as the father, and with the same background as the first, I wanted to see it. Well, this is what happens when you plan on seeing a movie on tv: You miss it. Next day I reread the article about the movie and then I saw the script was originally a book. Of course I needed to read some books for my exams, so I decided to take this one. Later I found out I already had it in my possesion, in the appearance of a blackbird book.

I liked the book (and the film Bimbo?s burgers, it?s quite similar) very much, because of a couple of reasons: First of all, I like the accent most of the people in the book use. The book becomes a lot nicer because of it (not really easy to read sometimes), the situation is much more relaxed than it would be with people with the Oxford accent.

The second reason for me liking the book is the fact that the structure of the story is very simple, the main idea of the book is not hidden under a complete layer structured story which often only make a book hard to read, it just shows clearly that life is hard but potentially nice to live.

Overall valuation: 8

Roddy Doyle.

Title:

The Snapper (Snapper stands for a baby, child, kid, which is the main matter of the book. The

story evolves around the pregnancy of the main character. But to snap means you change

moods very easily, beeause of the hormonal changes during a pregnancy.

Information

about the book:

This book was first printed in 1990.

My copy: Blackbird, 183 pages.

Publisher: Wolters Noordhoff.

Biography:

Roddy Doyle was born in 1958 in Dublin and has grown up there, in Kilbarrack, to be precise.

Kilbarrack is a suburb in the north of Dublin, close to the sea.

He was a Geography and English teacher there and thus stayed in touch with all generations of

his neighbourhood. He loves that part of town and knows that inside the aggressive, foul

mouthed, drunken “eejits” there is (more often than not) a heart of gold. At one point Doyle

felt that the only way to express his true love and sympathy for the suffering people around

them was to write about them. His first book The Commitments was made into a very succesful

movie by Alan Parker and it helped to establish Roddy Doyle’s reputation as a writer of best-

sellers

Bibliography:

The Commitments (1987).

The Snapper (1990)

The Van (1991).

Paddy Clake Ha Ha Ha (1993).

The Woman Who Walked into Doors (1996).

Genre:

lt’s a novel about a working-class family which has to deal with the

pregnancy of the daughter.

Motto:

This book is delicated to Belinda

Characters:

Main Characters.

-Sharon, a girl being pregnant and giving birth to a child of a married man from the

neighbourhood.

-George Burgess, the father of Sharon’s child.

-Veronica, the mother of Sharon.

-Jimmy sr, Sharon?s father.

Minor Characters

-Jimmy jr, Sharon?s brother who has decided to be a famous discjockey.

-Tracy, Linda (= twins), Darren and Les, the rest of Sharon’s brothers and sisters.

-Yvonne, Jackie and Mary, these are the best friends of Sharon, with whom she spends quite a

lot of their time (and money) in a pub, getting ?pissed? (=drunk)

-Paddy, Bertie and Bimbo, the pals of Jimmy sr.

Ordering of time:

The story is built up very simple, it is told chronologically.

Setting:

The setting, like most of Doyle?s work, is a suburb exactly like the one he lives in himself. He

calls it Barrytown, and it is a working class-suburb with tiny houses, lots of children in the

streets, unemployment and heavy drinking (barry means happy in Irish).

Narration:

The story is told by the omniscient point of view, so the reader gets an insight in what the

characters are thinking and feeling, or when Sharon is feeling pain or sickness during her

pregnancy, or when Jimmy sr. was mad at Sharon because she was pregnant and wouldn?t tell

him who the father was.

Language:

The English being used by the characters is mostly Irish dialect, which means that they

pronounce ?jezus? like ?jayses?, and they use lots of insulting words. You could say they speak slang.

Theme:

In Barrytown excists a great sense of togetherness both within the family and in the local

community, but sometimes things happens which can cause a divide. Sharon getting pregnant of

a married man and not telling who he was, is an example of such an event. The book could also

be entitled as: ?Nine months in the life of a family in a Dublin suburb?.

Plot/outline:

The Rabibitte family lives in Barrytown, a north-Dublin suburb. One day, after dinner, Sharon

Rabbitte tells her parents that she is pregnant. The father and Sharon are having a big row,

because she refuses to tell who the father of the child is. Sharon goes to buy a book which

describes the details of pregnancy. When she is in her 1 l th week signs start to show. The time

has come to tell her friends, but she keeps postponing it, because she knew they would ask who

the father is. Her friends are sympathetic and delighted for her. One night Bimbo, a pal of

Jimmy sr, told him that he heard that George Burgess said that Sharon was a great little ride.

Jimmy sr. was furious and wanted to crease him. When Jimmy sr. got home he warns Sharon

for George. The next day Sharon goes to George and told him to stop or else she would tell his

wife (they were both drunk and made a mistake). A few days later George has dissappeared,

because he has told his wife about Sharon. George his wife tells the community that Sharon has

seduced her husband. Sharon decides to deny everything and makes up a story about a Spanish

sailor for her friends. Jimmy sr. is mad and Sharon says she’s sorry and threatens to leave the

house. Jimmy sr. begins to know more about the theoretical side of pregnancy than Sharon

does, because he reads ?bukes?(books) about the subject. In the end of the book, Sharon gives

birht to a baby girl. She calls her Georgina.

My review:

I read this book because I had seen a movie, called ?Bimbo?s burgers?. I liked it very much, and when I saw another movie was going to be broadcasted, performing the same actor as the father, and with the same background as the first, I wanted to see it. Well, this is what happens when you plan on seeing a movie on tv: You miss it. Next day I reread the article about the movie and then I saw the script was originally a book. Of course I needed to read some books for my exams, so I decided to take this one. Later I found out I already had it in my possesion, in the appearance of a blackbird book.

I liked the book (and the film Bimbo?s burgers, it?s quite similar) very much, because of a couple of reasons: First of all, I like the accent most of the people in the book use. The book becomes a lot nicer because of it (not really easy to read sometimes), the situation is much more relaxed than it would be with people with the Oxford accent.

The second reason for me liking the book is the fact that the structure of the story is very simple, the main idea of the book is not hidden under a complete layer structured story which often only make a book hard to read, it just shows clearly that life is hard but potentially nice to live.

Overall valuation: 8